Stunning 81-Room Six Senses Kyoto Now Open

Poor Kyoto, it's going the same way as Venice, Barcelona, and Amsterdam. I'm glad our trips were before the horde arrived.

100% in agreement with Peter. Just checked my pre-covid rates and compared them to the rates today. Wow!
I am old enough to suggest that a lot of the problem is social media. Kyoto is a wonderfully photogenic place, and many people are there, at least in part, for the Instagram potential.
The other thing that has changed is that your ability to enjoy yourself in Kyoto has significantly diminished. Gone are the days when you could just walk to the your choice of restaurant, picturing yourself as a geisha-era visitor, and have a reasonable chance at a table. Many restaurants are visibly unenthusiastic to have tourists dine - they much prefer the locals: language is not an issue and return visits are much likelier.
The comparison to Venice and Barcelona is spot on.

Ben, did you see the DOT passed significant consumer protection laws in relation to flights that are delayed or cancelled?

What is there to do around Six Senses Kyoto?

Really? I didn't have much trouble, but then again, I didn't imagine myself as anything but a tourist trying my best. The gyukatsu place for which I stood in line two hours employed a foreigner who spoke English with the tourist guests like me. Perhaps it's because we visited before mask restrictions were lifted and there were relatively few other tourists?

Kyoto is also a lot like Santa Fe, but of course much older and larger. The vibe of "ancient but modern city living through mobs of tourists" is the same, the "welcome to the city, please spend your money, enjoy your stay, and go home" of a population trying to go about their lives in a city with strained infrastructure. (I have not been to Barcelona or Venice, but I've heard they suffer from the same issues.)

I am at the FS Kyoto at the moment and it’s right next door to the Six Sense, the staff were happy to show us around, the places is very petty but if you are going to stay in that area the FS is way better just because you have the garden and out door area, that’s something that’s lacking from the Six Sence

Visit Kyoto sights.

A couple of comments:

1) Outside of sakura and autumn color seasons, plus Golden Week and other Japanese domestic holidays, Kyoto is not nearly as crowded as media reports make it out to be. Moreover, if you go to Kiyomizu-dera or Sagano Bamboo Grove before about 7 AM, even during the high season, you'll have the places mostly to yourself.
2) I will never understand why one would travel all the way to Japan's ancient capital, which is home to dozens of five-star ryokan (as well as hundreds of other less opulent but equally stellar ryokan, Machiya and boutique hotels), and spend thousands per night to stay at a place like this.

What is so stunning about the this hotel? It looks like many other hotels in Japan and is similar to other luxury hotels there...

We were in Kyoto last week and it was fine. The city is much bigger than, say, Florence, and while it’s true that there can be a wait at restaurants, it nowhere near felt as crowded as some Italian cities I’ve visited, even off season. Japanese civility and efficiency help a lot, too.